Daily Archives: Thursday, February 7, 2013

Tor.com, one of the most respected short fiction publishers on the web, announced today that it will be increasing its short fiction publication to a weekly format. At four stories a month, this puts the magazine on par with other short fiction venues like Clarkesworld and Lightspeed in terms of volume. Great news for readers.

Since our launch in 2008, Tor.com has always been a competitive market for original short sci-fi and fantasy fiction. We’ve been able to work outside of conventional publishing boundaries, create original illustrations for the stories, and have now garnered both Nebula and Hugo Awards! By the end of last year, Tor.com doubled our editorial staff, both in acquiring editors and first readers for our open submissions file. Our fiction team consisting of Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Liz Gorinsky, Ann VanderMeer, Ellen Datlow, Bridget Smith, and Carl Engle-Laird are working harder than ever to bring you the best of what’s on the cutting edge of new speculative fiction! We’ve always been proud of our stories and now we’re proud to offer new ones once a week! Expect forthcoming new stories from Genevieve Valentine, Harry Turtledove, Cory Doctorow, and many, many more.

Irene Gallo, Creative Director for Tor.com and Tor Books, also confirmed to me that this indicates a turn-around/response time for short fiction submissions to the site, saying that the short fiction editors have been, “catching up on the back-log.” It’s good news for those with submissions in the queue, which is infamously long, and those who’re simply looking for new, good SFF short fiction. Though, given Tor.com’s previous track record, I expect that the short fiction will continue to favour established long- and short-fiction writers, and remain almost impenetrable to emerging writers who submit to the site.